The Nuclear Diaries
by MyInnerWeirdo
Summary: An explosion wipes the Candy Kingdom off the face of Ooo. Bonnibel Bubblegum must now cope with the loss of her kingdom along with a set of old and dangerous problems that the devastation has unearthed. MxPB FxFP Cover image by LizLeeLi at Deviantart.
1. The Start

**Updated: Now fits more with the Show Canon (lesbians excluded, unfortunately). Other changes are fairly noticeable and is there to make the story flow better. Let me know if I've done a good job, or if I've done more harm than good.**

**I _loooove_ you guys~!  
**

Chapter 1: The Start

There was an explosion. That was all she could remember.

It happened so suddenly, and the force of it was so great and the radius so massive that it took out the entire palace, along with most of the Candy Kingdom The stench of death and turmoil quickly became overwhelming for those few least affected by the blast. Wildfires and falling debris took care of the majority of what little survivors there were, and those who barely made it out had been greatly wounded and would be forever scarred. Those who lived miles away from the kingdom looked in awe as the fiery explosion nearly set fire to the skies.

Bonnibel, caught in the direct center of it all, still breathed due to nothing less than a miracle. Crippled and bloodied, she lifted herself up from the ground so layered in ashes. Her vision was blurred, her mind fuzzy and all of her senses were boggled; all of her back felt as if it were on fire, and a splitting pain rocketed through every fiber of her being. Sirens were blaring: from where she couldn't tell. Burning smoke filled and irritated her nostrils, and Bonnibel couldn't remember a thing. Her clothes, or what little remained, were singed black, the torn edges of her royal gown still alight with embers.

Heaving and gasping for fresh air, she looked around at the devastation, "Oh…oh, my goodness." She breathed, both terrified and awestruck. "…what happened? How—?"

Another explosion shook the ground beneath her, drowning out her words and leaving a painful ringing in her ears. The shockwave knocked loose debris off the castle and sent it smashing into the blackened grounds, already littered with numerous craters. The smashed bodies of dead candy people were everywhere, bits and pieces of them scattered in all directions. When she lifted her head up to survey what further damage had been done by the miniature explosion, Bonnibel felt something slither off of her back. The movement irritated the burns on her back and she couldn't stop the agonized shriek that pushed out of her throat.

A deep voice came from nowhere, whispering sinisterly into her still ringing ear, "See you around, Princess," before a waft of cold air hit her suddenly, like something had moved quickly away from her but she didn't see a thing.

Bonnibel struggled to get up; her arms were burned and weak and the physical exertion made it that much worse. It quickly became too much and she fell back down onto her stomach, coughing violently as even more smoke from the fires was inhaled into her lungs.

"Princess!" a voice called. It was lighter and kinder than the first, but filled with panic. "Princess Bubblegum, are you in there? Are you still alive? Answer me!"

It took several seconds for Bonnibel to realize that it was Finn who was shouting for her. She did not know where he was, but he was looking for her, calling to her. She wondered if she had the strength to answer. Lifting her head up from the ground once more, she called feebly, "…Finn." She tried reaching out, hoping to grasp something that would ensure her safety. "Finn," she said again, louder this time. Her throat burned with inhaled ash, and it was almost impossible for her to say anything without the inside of her throat nearly catching fire. "I'm here. I'm _here_!"

"Bonnibel!"

Another voice dove into the fray; this one held a tone of unspeakable fear, total panic, almost to a point where the voice was unrecognizable. But even with her mind fuzzy and shell-shocked, she knew who it was.

A soft thump beside her. A rush of wind next. Cold hands touched her shoulders, but as cold as those hands were they still left her shoulders burning. Marceline gently lifted her into her arms, and Bonnibel held onto her, grasping her as tightly as she could with her hands fisting into the older woman's hair. "Bonni, oh thank glob you're alive."

"Marcie…?" she asked. Her fingers curled into the fabric of the vampire's shirt. "I…I think there was an explosion."

"No fucking shit, there was an explosion. Let's get you out of here!"

Bonnibel felt a strong wave of lightheadedness as Marceline took flight—it was too sudden: her injured body hadn't been ready for it. As her mind continued to go dark, she heard Marceline yell, "Finn! Jake! You guys, I found her!"

She heard Finn's voice, muffled by the ringing in her ears, say something in reply, but she blacked out completely before she could register what the words were.

**0-0-0**

When she woke up, she was in bed; not her bed, she managed to notice. She was able to think much more clearly now, and as much as she hoped that what she had seen had been just a gruesome nightmare, the pain she felt all around her coupled with her current surroundings told her otherwise. She was in Marceline's house, totally covered in bandages. Knowing she was too weak to even think about sitting up, she looked around the room slowly, wincing as she did because her neck was incredibly sore and it hurt terribly to move it.

Marceline was there, sitting down for once, in a battered and red armchair. She was fast asleep, and even in this current state she looked very exhausted. The sight stunned Bonnibel because she didn't know vampires could feel such things as fatigue, or even the need for sleep. Bonnibel tried to move over and touch the vampire, lifting herself to reach further, but found that she was too weak to even lift her hand off of the mattress, and the effort it took just to try made her vision swim and her mind foggy once more. She whimpered and fell back onto the mattress.

Marceline snorted loudly as she jolted awake, pulled out of her slumber by the small sound. Wide awake now, deep red eyes focused on Bonnibel, "Y-you're awake! Oh, thank glob. How do you feel?" Marceline floated directly above Bonnibel now, examining her closely. She asked again, "How do you feel? Does anything hurt?"

Everything hurt, even if she kept completely still and didn't move any part of her; everything hurt.

"What happened?" she said, quiet as a mouse. "Was that explosion…did it really happen?"

Marceline frowned, almost looked away, but managed to keep her eyes locked with the Princess'. "Yeah. It really happened. Your kingdom. It's…it's gone, Bonni. I'm sorry."

The silence of the room was absolutely deafening after hearing that. It took a few moments too long for the vampire's words to sink in but when they did, tears immediately flooded Bonnibel's eyes. Unwelcome sobs racked her body, though she tried to hold them back, and sent waves of pain crashing over her body. How could this have happened? Bonnibel couldn't remember anything going on that could have resulted in such devastation; in fact, she couldn't remember anything happening at all that day.

"Bonni…" Marceline whispered gently. Her voice sounded strange. Bonnibel couldn't accurately describe what she could hear in the vampire's tone, but it sounded very much unlike the snarky undead punk that she knew. Marceline leaned over and draped an arm lightly over Bonnibel's stomach in an attempt to embrace her without hurting her. She gently kissed Bonnibel's face where a tear was about to fall. "I'm so sorry…I should've been there. Shit, the one day that I'm not…" Her breath hitched and she stopped. After a short pause, she moved on to something a bit lighter, "Your butler is still alive. I managed to get him out. Poor guy took one hell of a beating though…"

"Where is he?"

"He's resting in the other room. He's doin' pretty good, considering the…well, he's fine anyway."

"May I see him? Please?"

As the words left her mouth Bonnibel suddenly realized how terrible she sounded. Her voice was so gravely and raspy and no matter how she'd been trying, it wouldn't go a decibel louder than a whisper. Maybe that along with Marceline's obviously strong affection toward her is what influenced the vampire to say, "Yeah. I'll go get him. Be right back."

She was only gone for less than a minute. To be exact, it was forty-six and a half seconds, but it felt like an endless eternity; an eternity that Bonnibel spent trying not to cry or sob, not only because it hurt too much, but also because she knew that it wouldn't undo everything that had happened. It wouldn't bring back the lives of all those candy people, so why should she cry?

Finally, Marceline returned. Held between her two hands was rather broken piece of giant peppermint candy. Though most of Peppermint Butler was still there, a huge chunk was missing from his side, and he was now without his left arm and eye. He wasn't wearing his suit anymore, instead he wore a too-large shirt that undoubtedly belonged to Marceline but had given to him for obvious reasons: there was a lovely picture of a dying walrus on it. The butler was set on the edge of the bed, and he looked at her with one sorrowful, bloodshot eye. "Your Highness," he breathed. He sounded bad, but not nearly as bad as she did, "Thank goodness you've woken." He moved forward, perhaps to hug her, but caught himself in time, "It's been days since the incident. I thought you weren't going to wake at all."

Smiling weakly, Bonnibel tried to lift her hand, found that she could now, and brought it up to touch Peppermint Butler's face. The movements made her arm tingle in a way that felt like it had to sleep and made her fingertips feel odd as they pressed against his face; Bonnibel's smile faltered slightly and allowed her arm to fall back down. It was too difficult to hold it up. "It's okay, Peppermint. I'm going to be fine." The smile vanished entirely, "Are you okay?"

The broken peppermint lifted his arm to his face, and he frowned. Before he spoke, however, the frown turned into a wide smile, "It is okay, Princess. Candy people re-grow their parts, remember? I will be okay as long as you are."

Bonnibel smiled back, "That's good. I'm glad to see at least you made it out alive."

Peppermint Butler nodded. His smile faltered and faded away. With the tiniest of sniffles, of which he attempted to stifle—he had to stay strong for his former princess—he hugged her, unable to contain himself any longer. She returned the hug, or tried to, and did her best to hold back her tears.

Marceline hovered above them both now, and she plucked Peppermint Butler from Bonnibel's weak embrace. "All right, it's time for the candy folk to rest now. You can see each other again tomorrow."

Marceline left again. This time, she didn't come back for quite a while. The silence that came afterwards made Bonnibel painfully aware of how badly she wanted someone there with her at this moment. In both emotional and physical torment, she did not want to be by herself, although she wasn't alone for very long. Finn came in after a few long minutes, along with Flame Princess. Bonnibel felt her chest tighten. She hadn't seen the princess of the Fire Kingdom since she nearly melted the planet's core.

"Hey, Peebs…" Finn said. His voice was almost quieter than Bonnibel's was. "Marcie said you were awake now, so we came to keep you company while she fixes you some lunch. You remember Flame Princess, right?"

"Hi," said the Flame Princess. She wore a smile of sympathy, but it was trembling like she was trying too hard to keep it there. The smile went away eventually and she looked away.

"So, PB, how do you feel?" Finn asked, kneeling by her bed. He didn't use the armchair, which Bonnibel almost found strange for some reason. It was there, why not use it?

"I feel…pretty bad." She groaned a little as she leaned her head back. "Do either of you know what caused that explosion?"

Finn shook his head, "Huh-uh. Me and FP were out of the Candy Kingdom at the time. She blasted us over there after we saw what happened."

"Oh…" Bonnibel breathed, frowning as she stared up at the ceiling. She sighed deeply, sadly, as tears began to sting her eyes once more. "Oh, Finn...I just…how could this have happened? How did this happen?!" Her voice, though weak and very quiet, was thick with sadness and anger.

"Hey, it's all right PB, we'll figure things out. You just gotta rest up first, all right? We'll find the one responsible for, for…well, you know."

"Yeah…" The former candy princess said dejectedly. Then she realized Finn's words. "How do you know that it was a person that caused it?"

The Flame Princess frowned deeply, and her brows knitted together as two balls of flame appeared in each of her hands, "Fire is a destructive force. It is so by nature. Explosions are like that too, but something like that…it—it _wasn't_ natural." The fireballs turned from orangey red to white and bright blue, and the color consumed the palms of her hands as well, "I will find whoever did this and _burn them_ to the ground!" She curled her fingers around both fireballs and they exploded. It wasn't anything big, but it was clear how unhappy she was. It baffled Bonnibel.

"Why do you care so much? After what I put you through..."

"I know. But…it's all right, I guess, given the situation. As of two weeks ago, you've been through worse than I have."

"Oh, well, t-thank you." She paused, "Two weeks…oh Gob, I hope I didn't worry you guys too much."

Finn chuckled sadly, "It's all right, Princess. We were happy just to find you still in one piece after all that biz back at the palace. Ah man, it was nuts back there! And Marcie was so worried she actually started screaming and crying when she couldn't find you, and when she did she was super happy and we brought you here. But then you wouldn't wake up and we all got scared, 'cause you were hurt, y'know? But Marceline's been taking the hardest."

"Has she?" Bonnibel felt a bit worried. She had been hoping she hadn't caused any unneeded stress.

"Yeah. Don't tell her I said, but she's been awake these past thirteen days trying to make your unconscious body as comfortable as possible so you wouldn't be in any pain when you woke up. And when she wasn't doing that she was sitting here in this armchair just staring at you all day. She barely left the house; she barely even slept!" It seemed like he had more to say, but the words were mangled when his hands suddenly flew up to his mouth and he turned around.

Marceline reappeared then carrying a tray that held a bowl of soup, a teapot, and a small cup. She floated over to the bed set the tray down at the foot of the bed. "All right, kiddies, it's time to leave Bonnie alone so she can eat."

Finn started to protest but saw the look on Marceline's face; he then turned to Flame Princess, "Let's head back to the Tree House, FP. Maybe Jake'll let us cheer him up now." Flame Princess agreed and they both left silently. Bonnibel watched until they both descended down Marceline's ladder and vanished from sight. When Marceline was sure they were both gone, she refocused her attention and helped Bonnibel into a sitting position, wrapping an arm around her back to hold her steady.

"Why does Jake need cheering up?"

Marceline hesitated as she brought the bowl of soup up to Bonnibel's face. A second later, she said softly, "It's 'cause of your kingdom, sweetie. It happened so suddenly and he was very emotionally overwhelmed by it."

Her words held truth behind them; untruth as well, but nothing as drastic as a lie. Before Bonnibel had time to think about it, Marceline held the bowl up to her mouth, "Here, drink this. I made it especially for you,"

It was a candy soup, specifically made to sooth some of Bonnibel's pain as well as keeping her from going hungry. Even so, it was difficult at first to keep it from coming back up after she had swallowed it down. Marceline rubbed the back of her girlfriend's neck, whispering soothing words and encouragement to hold it down as she fed the remainder of the soup to her, then placed the emptied bowl back on the tray and grabbed the teapot and cup.

"What's that?"

"Just tea. You like that stuff don't you? Thought it might help make you feel better."

Marceline pressed the rim of the cup against Bonnibel's lip, urging her to drink it and the girl complied. The tea tasted nothing like she was used to. It tasted sour and it was really cold. Still, she gulped it down with earnest, but she didn't ask for more. After laying her back down safely, Marceline set the cup and teapot back on the tray and moved it to the nightstand next to the bed. She set herself down onto the armchair, hands clenched into tight fists in the middle of her lap. Silence reigned.

As slowly as she could, Bonnibel turned over onto her side so she could look at Marceline. Marceline watched but didn't try to stop her, though her brow curled up in worry when she heard the tiny grunt of pained effort from her.

"Uh," Marceline's voice quavered a bit, "You shouldn't be moving around. You've done enough of that already and I'm not sure if you—"

"Oh, shush," She reached over, slowly to avoid as pain as possible, and grabbed Marceline's hand. Just as before, she felt her fingers tingle at the motion. Marceline grasped her hand lightly and leaned forward, "I'll be just fine." Marceline gently wove their fingers together.

"Yeah…" She was unconvinced, but it didn't matter. Marceline wrapped her other hand around Bonnibel's and leaned down to kiss the pink knuckles. She went quite again for a long time, remaining bent over the side of the bed with her hair covering face like a curtain of shadows. During that time Bonnibel became vaguely aware of soft hiccupping noise coming from the vampire. Marceline continued to kiss Bonnibel's slightly numbed hand, lightly stroking the fingers with her thumb.

"Marcie?"

"What?" Marceline whispered hoarsely. Her voice was broken.

"Are _you_ going to be fine?"

Marceline finally lifted her head. Her eyes were not their normal red hue, and even in the darkness of the room Bonnibel could see the tears rolling down the vampire's cheeks. Seeing her this way made a deep sort of sadness erupt in Bonnibel's chest, and it was far worse than the physical pain she felt right now.

"You shouldn't worry about me, Bonni," she said, "You just focus on getting rest and making yourself better, okay?"

"Finn said you were worrying yourself sick."

Light sobs shook her shoulders and she tried in vain to stop them. She squeezed Bonnibel's hand lightly, "I-I'll be fine, 'kay Bonnibel? Just rest up for now okay?"

Bonnibel tried to squeeze Marceline's hand as well, but her fingers were still too weak and numb. Instead, she mumbled, "I love you, Marcie."

"I love you too. So much. Go to sleep now, you need your rest."

**0-0-0**

The room was still dark when she woke again. The fading images of the explosion, playing and then replaying over and over in her head, were the first thing she could remember. This time she knew for sure that it had been a dream. She knew that these images would be haunting her sleep probably for the rest of her life, but she also knew that these same images were not what woke her up.

The room was dark. Yes, being both in a cave and in an unlighted room with no windows guaranteed that, but this was a different kind of dark than before. It was more blinding and very much more sinister than when she last woke. The air felt cold, even though she had felt Marceline but an extra blanket over her before she had fallen asleep earlier. Along with the cold, there was a very specific smell that was heavily assaulting her nose. It was an awful smell that made her nose scrunch up, and she tried to turn her head away from it. She still felt incredibly ill, and this awful scent made it much worse.

It was the smell of…_mint leaves_? Where in Ooo was that coming from? As disgusting to her as it was, it seemed very familiar, but she couldn't remember why.

Bonnibel opened her eyes, but in that split second it took for her eyelids to slide back, the cold air and smell of mint dissipated completely. The sinister feel of the room was replaced by very pleasant warmth that was very undermined by the stench of dirty laundry—even if the vampire _had_ cleaned up to make her more comfortable, the smell would probably linger for a while—and Bonnibel hugged the warm ball of fluff closer to her chest. It was Marceline in her bat form, of course. It was the only way that the vampire would be comfortable with cuddling with her injured girlfriend, and even then Bonnibel almost had to beg. She lightly stroked the bat's fur with her finger, finding comfort in the softness of it. The bat stirred lightly.

"Mmm…Bonni?" Marceline yawned, bat-ears twisting around towards her, "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah." She said, her eyes beginning to droop again, quickly forgetting what had woke her up, "Everything's okay."

She and Marceline quickly fell back to sleep, making them unaware of the floorboards that creaked just slightly as a disfigured shadow dashed out of the room.

**A/N: If it's not too much to ask, may I have some constructive criticism? Thanks!**

**While the idea for the story belongs to me, I have to give my good friend (name withheld) some credit because she gave me some good ways to write this chapter when I was lost or unable to write! Thanks, friend~!**


	2. The Portman

Chapter 2:

Someone had reported a disturbance in the forest that had bordered what was once the Candy Kingdom. Those still shaken by what they nicknamed the 'Great Event' were saying that something was creeping around the forest and that Finn needed to deal with it immediately. He did not want to because whoever had caused the Great Event was still out there, but he was bound by his Heroic Code and had no other choice. In the early hours of the morning he went to pick up Flame Princess to help; he had also tried to enlist Jake's help, but the dog was still waist deep in his depression so it was just Finn and Flame Princess.

Finn would be lying if he said he wasn't a little worried. Usually when he and Jake would go out to deal with the many dangers of Ooo things would get pretty rough, and sometimes they'd almost die even. Though nearly everyone thought twice—no, _thrice_—before tangling with a Fire Elemental, Finn still cringed when she had asked to go with him. After she nearly died after kissing him, he realized that he couldn't bear to lose her. He still let her go with him, though. There was no way he could ever say no to her, and he trusted her when she assured him that she would be fine.

"Finn?" she asked, stepping into a large clump of flowers. They caught fire and she jumped away from them in surprise. "What are we supposed to be looking for anyway?"

Finn was busy slicing through some thick vines. "I don't know, actually," he said between hacks and grunts, "They just said-ugh!-that something big—uhn!—was lurkin' out here and they wanted me to—agh!—go kill it."

"Oh. Okay."

She was once evil, so she probably didn't think about whether this creature really deserved to be killed. Finn thought about it though: a lot. What was he to do if this creature was actually really nice, or just a brainless animal? It posed a great problem for him and his code of honor. If this creature was just misconstrued as evil because of the hype from the Great Event, then Finn would politely ask it to move to another location. If it was evil, then he would destroy it, simple as that. Everything should work out fine. Then they could go back to investigating the Great Event.

It took nearly an hour to cut through all the vines and bramble. Thorns had jabbed and stuck into Finn's shirt and flesh, leaving tiny cuts that he did well to not even notice.

It was the afternoon, and they were deep within the forest when they came across a large rust colored boulder sitting in the middle of a clearing. It badly damaged, like someone had used it as a punching bag. Deep claw marks cut it deep, some almost going straight through, and there were chunks of it missing from where a strong set of jaws had bit into it. It looked as if it were going to crumble at the slightest tap. Finn approached it, sword drawn but hanging loosely at his side, and examined the rock.

"Do you think it was the monster those people are so scared of?" asked Flame Princess, curiosity only faint in her voice. "Wow. Looks like it can do serious damage."

"Yeah. But look," Finn jabbed his finger at it, "It's focusing all its negative energy on this defenseless rock. So obviously it doesn't want to hurt anyone, right?"

Flame Princess hummed, "I guess so. What's that red stuff?" She poked at a small bit of gooey red that dripped from a crevasse in the rock. Finn dropped down to look at it. It was obvious to him what it was: blood. From what he didn't know, but it reeked something fierce: kind of life fish. He looked up and saw that the rock was in fact not the color of rust. It was covered top to bottom in blood and what looked to be clumps of skin and mottled fur. If he looked hard enough, he could see bits of claws and teeth deeply imbedded into the stone.

"Holy shmow! What happened to this poor rock?"

At that moment, a loud roar pierced through the silent skies, setting off a pack of birds that were nesting in the trees. It came from deeper within the forest. The ground began to rumble as something large charged through the thick trees. For nothing more than a second, Finn thought he saw what the people were so terrified of—a large creature with a maddening shape. As it passed by, staying within the trees' shadows, it looked back at him with four gleaming red eyes, and when his own eyes made contact, time seemed to freeze. His chest tightened up with something that felt like fear. Its form—its terrifyingly malformed shape…he couldn't make it out completely; it was there for a second, and then it was gone.

"I guess the big bad monster's in there," Finn said, voice wavering, and pointed with his sword. He turned his head, but his eyes never left the forest. "You want to go in, FP?"

"Uhm," Flame Princess eyed the trees, appearing almost nervous. "Yeah. I do."

Finn immediately took notice of her hesitation. He almost asked if she wanted to go home but didn't because he knew she would refuse. He didn't mean to be stereotypical, but Flame Elementals were often both hotheaded and stubborn—no pun intended on the former. It had possibly had something to do with their fire making them feel empowered, but there was no time to think about that now. He once again reassured himself that she would be fine and said in a hushed voice, "Okay. Let's do this thing,"

Despite of how ridiculously large this creature undoubtedly was, it was very difficult to find anything in this forest. After a while of searching and coming up completely empty handed, Flame Princess was preparing to burn the entire place down and see if the creature would die with the trees. Finn only just managed to stop her.

"A lot of innocent animal folk live here," he explained, pushing some brush aside so he could step through. "If you go up in flames, countless critters will die needlessly."

Flame Princess' face scrunched up for a moment. Then, her face relaxed and she said, "Oh. I didn't think about that." She frowned and looked at her feet ashamedly. Finn patted her shoulder and winced noticeably each time his hand made contact with her burning flesh.

"It's okay, FP. You didn't know, but now you do know. So, whatever, okay?"

She smiled up at him then, mumbling a small "Thanks, Finn," before she turned and starting searching again. Finn did the same. They continued in silence for a while, the quiet only broken by bushes rustling and the occasional 'fwoosh' as Flame Princess accidently caught some bramble on fire—and she would put it out just as quickly.

Finn was quickly becoming impatient. Though he wasn't jumping to any easily achievable conclusions for this situation, like Flame Princess did, he still wanted to find this creature and be done with this mess. He threw his hands up into the air, letting out a shout, "Agh! How does something SO big just up and disappear like that? It makes no sense!"

"It moved pretty fast before. Maybe it left the forest when it saw us." Flame Princess suggested. She glanced around the forest around her, at the many blackened areas where she had touched. Her eyes fell upon something red, and remained there for several moments. They grew round and her fire died down a little as she trembled. "Uh…Finn?"

"Yeah, FP?"

"Look. Over there, what is that? It looks like…it moves like water, but I don't think…" Finn looked at her, saw her frightened stare and followed her gaze. Fresh blood was dripping freely from a large leaf that was probably green before it was ever red. "I don't want to touch it."

"Stay back, Flame Princess." Finn gripped his sword and moved to the bloodstained greenery. Just beneath the giant leaf was more bloodstains, staining the earth underneath it. Just a few feet away, the smell of it forcing itself into Finn's nostrils and making him physically ill, was a mutilated corpse. It was a man, or used to be, from the Hyoomen Tribe. Three claw marks similar to the ones he saw decorating the boulder were slashed along his chest and stomach. His face, once adorned with fins and gills, was torn brutally apart, his scales scattered all over the ground. His animal hat, a tiger, was pinned to a tree by a broken claw about the size of Finn's torso. "Oh, man…"

"Is everything okay, Finn?" asked Flame Princess, staying where she was as Finn said.

He did his best not to heave. He hadn't had breakfast today so it helped sort of. "Y-yeah, FP. Everything's cool. I think I just found a clue. D-don't come over here, though. It's freakin' nasty over here." He wondered if Susan Strong knew about this man's disappearance.

"So should we keep looking?" Flame Princess asked. It sounded as if she didn't want to and to be honest, Finn didn't blame her.

"I don't know…I don't know."

There were no other signs of the beast being here. He had no idea where else to search, but he knew he couldn't give up. He knew now this creature was evil and needed to be stopped as soon as possible. This man had been freshly killed, so hopefully it couldn't have gone very far.

Flame Princess was visibly afraid now, looking at the blood dripping from the leaves. This time, Finn had to ask her, "Do you want to head home, FP? This is starting to get really messed up."

She answered hesitantly, "…uh…yeah, sure. I do…want to go home."

He didn't ask why the fear was so evident in her voice. For most of her life she had been stuck in the Fire Kingdom, locked up in a giant lantern no less. There were probably things that were still unfamiliar to her. Things that she would fear until she was able to understand. Until then, Finn would allow her time to cope.

The beast, to the misfortune of whoever wandered unprepared in these woods, would have to wait. Flame Princess did not want to be alone and Finn wanted to be sure she got home safely, so they decided to leave the forest together. It took a while to navigate through the trees once more since they weren't following a straight path on the way in. For whatever reason, following the burning trail Flame Princess had left in her wake was a no-go since they could not find it. Complete bullshit, yes, but unfortunately true. Finn figured that their best bet would be to just head straight forward until they reached an opening. Flame Princess agreed—anything to get out of this damned place and away from that corpse.

And so they walked. They walked for what felt like hours. By the time they stopped, it was night, and the only source of light they were getting was from the glow of Flame Princess' fire.

"I don't think we're going the right way, Finn," Flame Princess said, nearly crestfallen. There were no howls or the hoots from an owl or anything. Just silence. Finn wondered what was bothering her.

"Nah, we're fine, FP," he reassured, "We just gotta find the path we took before. Then we can get somewhere." He looked around, "I guess we're not finding that monster tonight…"

"I feel like we've been walking in circles. Can't I just carry you on my back?"

Finn nearly said yes, but he still had burns from before; during the Great Event. "Nah. I almost died last time, remember?" His love greatly overpowered the fear of getting burned by her touch, but dying was the last thing he wanted to do right now. "Come on, let's just keep walking. If we don't find a way out soon, then I'll let you carry me. All right?"

It took a moment for her to agree, and they began to walk again. Flame Princess' body glowed brilliantly in the darkness, her heat keeping away the coldness of night. Finn remained close to her, sword upright and ready to slash any offender that came. After about an eternity later, they finally found the mangled boulder again. This time, it was just a bunch of rubble.

Sitting in front of said rubble pile was a girl, probably, covered in a shroud of white smoke. She appeared to be hunching over something, and tiny flickers of orange light kept sparking up through the smoke cloud. As they approached her, waving away the white smoke, they were greeted by a funky smell. Admittedly, it was far better than the corpse smell, but Finn had smelled this before. It was the same smell he had encountered when he had visited Marceline's house uninvited. The vampire was completely stunned and strangely happy to see him, and she told him the smell came from something she had just smoked, called marijuana or 'pot'. She also told him that it was bad for those still amongst the living so Finn didn't dare to try any.

It was definitely a girl. The smoke cloud covered of her features, but her figure was defined enough to be sure. She looked up at them, round glasses gleaming in the moonlight. "Hi there," she said, voice raspy and deep, "how's it hangin'?"

"What are you doing?" asked Flame Princess. Her fear had suddenly vanished at seeing this girl and was swiftly being replaced with fury. She could not understand why that was.

The girl's voice was normal now, "Taking away my physical and emotional pain with a mind altering agent. What are you doing?"

"Trying to find our way out," Finn answered. "We were looking for a monster that's been skulking 'round here, but I think it gave us the slip."

"Sucks. Hope you guys find it." The girl lifted a strange, pipe-like object to her face, covering her mouth with the opening and flicking a lighter over a smaller opening at the bottom. She inhaled deeply, drew her face away and waited, then blew out. She made a silly sound, like she was trying not to laugh.

The smoggy air around this girl was beginning to make Finn feel odd. He didn't know how to explain it, but he was starting to feel a bit lightheaded.

"So…are you guys gonna go or what?" the girl slipped the lighter and pipe into her pockets. She stood up. Even with the light resonating from Flame Princess, it was still a bit difficult to make out her features. The white smoke still shrouded her, and breathing it was making Finn's mind feel all fuzzy. Blinking away the fog, he examined the girl. Her skin was pinkish pale, like his own, her hair long and brown with what appeared to be green tinting the edges. Little round glasses with purple lenses covered her eyes, and…

He stopped. His head was beginning to hurt now.

"Um…kid? You okay?" She knocked on his shoulder as if he were a door and he wobbled at the touch, "Yikes. Have you never experienced a second hand high before?"

If that strangeness he felt back at Marceline's all those weeks ago was a second hand high, then yes he had. But never had he felt it ever, before or since. The girl turned to Flame Princess. "Is your boyfriend okay?"

Flame Princess was eyeing her suspiciously. The pot smoke did not appear to be affecting her the same way as it was Finn, and she could see this girl very clearly. This girl was very similar to Finn. In fact, the only way she was not similar was gender, hair color, and fashion.

This girl was human. _How_ was this girl _human_?!

The girl scoffed, "What is everyone ignoring me now? Well, mom did say that that's what would come from being high…" She hummed, patting her jeans pockets idly as she surveyed her suddenly very interesting surroundings.

"Who are you, anyway?" Flame Princess asked. She was about ready to strike this girl down right now, but she didn't know why she wanted to.

The girl looked at her, bloodshot eyes completely round. "Me? My name's Natalie Portman." With a sigh, she squatted back down onto her haunches and blew air through pursed lips, "I just got back from the Land of Aaa a few weeks ago. Completely forgot what I was doing there, but I was on my way to the Candy Kingdom when it done exploded and slapped me in the face with fire and molten cobble. Probably why I got amnesia'd."

"I'm sure that stuff your smoking isn't doing any good either."

Natalie blinked at Flame Princess, at first not understanding but eventually realizing. "Oh yeah. Guess you're right. Well, I don't really like the smell of me without this stuff so it's staying with me for now. 'Kay?" She patted the pocket that held her pipe to emphasize her point and reiterated, "It stays."

Flame Princess growled, her flame growing brighter with anger.

Finn was finally beginning to recover a little bit. Actually, it wasn't so much recovering as it was getting used to the feeling of it. He shook his head and fixed his gaze on Natalie. More specifically, he focused on the arm she used to knock on his shoulder and pat her pocket just seconds ago. The arm was dripping with blood.

"Woah! Lady, your arm!"

"Huh?" Natalie looked at him, then her arm, "Oh yeah. Remember when I said I was taking away my physical pain?"

"What happened?"

Natalie scrunched up her noise in though. "Fuck, I can't remember. Aaaahhhhh, something big and hairy just swooped by me about an hour ago. Its claws clipped my arm I guess. I was too busy being in pain to see it or else I'd tell you what it looked like."

"I don't think you would have remembered anyway." Flame Princess crossed her arms across her chest and huffed at the absentminded human. Natalie did not notice her words. Probably, thought Flame Princess, another result of whatever it was she was smoking.

"Here, let me see." Finn grabbed Natalie's arm and lifted up the sleeve to her jacket. Her arm bared the same three claw marks as the ones on the Hyoomen's chest. "Holy cow! We gotta do something about this or, or you'll bleed to death."

"Oh. Well. That sucks." Natalie appeared unaware of her mortality, or just did not care.

"Flame Princess, here," he held Natalie's wounded arm out to Flame Princess, "Cauterize the cuts with your fire so she won't die!"

Flame Princess stared at the arm. She did not exactly know how her fire would heal this person, and what's more she did not want to heal this person. Unfortunately for her, Finn did. Unlike Finn, though, Flame Princess had the ability to say no to him.

"Finn," she whispered, leaning close to him, "I don't like this girl. She seems…I don't know, dangerous."

"She's not dangerous!" he retorted, "She just does some of the same stuff that Marceline does. She's not dangerous at all!" He seemingly did not notice that Natalie was human. Not yet anyway. If Flame Princess would stall long enough and allow her to bleed to death, maybe Finn would never notice. But the way he looked at her, with those big pleading eyes, made her cave.

"All right, fine. But only for you." She moved her hands over Natalie's wounds and blasted them with white hot flame. Natalie, probably because of her current state of mind, did not notice a thing.

By the time it was done, Natalie was still spacing out. She jumped when she felt her arm smack her side as it was let go. She lifted it and examined to work. "Woah. Trippy." She let her arm fall back down. "So…I guess we're done here?"

Flame Princess answered quickly, "Yes. We're done. Let's go Finn."

"Wait a minute, FP." Finn said, shrugging her off when she tried to touch him. "Miss Natalie Portman, I have reason to believe that the monster that wounded you is the same one that just murdered an innocent mutant earlier today."

She drawled, "Okay…" she thought for a moment. "OH! _That's_ the monster you're looking for?" It appeared her mind had just been blown.

"Yes, m'lady. So, it would be in my best interest and yours if you came with us to Marceline the Vampire Queen's crib until you're in perfect mind-condition to tell us what the plop is going on." He paused for dramatic effect several times during that sentence. Natalie fought not to laugh at him.

"Oi, this kid…" she said. Flame Princess continued to stare menacingly at her. She continued to not notice. "Ok. I'll go with you to Marci's place. Only for like, a day, or something though. She hates me."

"Woah!" Finn hollered, "You know Marceline? Explain!"

"Too long a story, too little time. Let's just go." She grabbed Finn's shoulder with her freshly healed arm and shoved him back. He stumbled and fell, but got back up just as quickly and started walking with her. "I know a short cut from here, follow my lead."

"Come on, FP! There's no time to lose!"

Flame Princess followed directly behind, staring hot, burning holes into the back of Natalie's head.

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I hope I didn't fuck up the feel of it too much, but hey, I'll fix it as I go along. As usual, please review and give any constructive criticism if you can. Ciao!  
**

**Also, Natalie doesn't share any relation to the real Natalie Portman, obviously XD. She belongs to me.  
**

**AND, because I forgot to last chapter, I don't own Adventure Time. If I did, there would be a lot of scenes where Marceline and PB are making (like, background wise. Like the snail :D)  
**


	3. The Nightmare

Chapter 3:

Bonnibel smiled and rubbed Lady Rainicorn's swollen tummy, both of them looking at an image of an ultrasound displayed on a small screen next to where Lady lay. "Your babies are developing quite well, Lady," She gently stroked Lady's mane, "It shouldn't be long now until you're ready to give birth."

"**_Oh, I cannot wait,_**" said Lady Rainicorn in her native tongue, "**_Jake and I have been preparing well for this time. My parents are here as well. They are very excited to meet their grandchildren._**"

"I'm glad to hear it. Would you like a copy of the ultrasound, Lady?"

"**_Oh, yes, please, My Lady! I would like to show them to Jake,_**"

Bonnibel chuckled and turned towards the door. "Okay. I'll go and print out the images. Please wait here until I return, I'll only be a moment, Lady."

"**_Hurry back, Princess!_**"

As she left the hospital room and the door shut behind her, Bonnibel couldn't stop the large smile from curling her lips. She felt so excited for her friend, and despite some difficulty at the beginning, and the situation with Ricardio, everything was looking just fine. As she walked, her thoughts inadvertently wandered over to Marceline, and she couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to raise a child with her. Just the thought made her heart flutter uncontrollably; it didn't matter how genetically impossible it was, science would eventually find a way for them. Adoption was always an option as well, but much less fun.

The lights flickered suddenly and interrupted her thoughts. Startled, Bonnibel stopped and looked at the ceiling. It went pitch black for a few moments before the lights shimmered and went back to normal. "Huh. That was strange." She continued on her way. As she was making a mental note to ask Starchy about the lighting system, the ground began to shake beneath her feet. It started as a small tremor, barely noticeable, and then it grew much worse. Vases began to fall from their places on the shelves, as did framed pictures from their resting places on the walls, which cracked from the harsh quaking. She was about to call out, a cry of terror or something else, when the ground split, tearing itself wide open.

She looked down into the crevasse; heat radiated from it and it felt like she was standing only twelve feet from the surface of the sun.

An ominous orange glow stared back at her from within the earth. Icy cold fingers squeezed at her heart, making her blood run cold with fear. Swallowing deep, Bonnibel let go of a breath she hadn't known she had been holding and simply said, "…_Netherrealm…_"

The portal had opened again.

Oh no, she thought. This is the worst possible thing…

Her thoughts instantaneously raced back to Lady Rainicorn, who still waited for her in the hospital room and at about this time probably feared for the lives of her unborn children. Bonnibel spun around and doubled back to the room. In fifteen seconds that passed far too slowly, she was at the hospital wing's door. It was unhinged and laying haphazardly against the wall, marked in claws and blood. Panic had effectively sunk in by then, but she somehow managed to remain calm as she made her way over to Lady Rainicorn's bed.

Lady Rainicorn's bed that lacked one Lady Rainicorn.

A bed that instead held blood and several mutilated fetuses.

The back of her eyes began to itch terribly, and hot tears spilled over her cheeks. She hadn't come fast enough.

"No…" she whimpered hopelessly. "No."

A beast growled, crawling out from beneath Lady Rainicorn's bed. Bonnibel did not notice as it doubled in size, its head touching the ceiling even in its slouching posture. Four extra arms extended from its sides with a wet spurting sound, claws as sharp as blades attached by the bone to its fingertips. Fur the color of coal and ember shimmered in the artificial light, and four rows of sharp teeth glinted in blood. In its hand was Lady Rainicorn—dead with a large hole cut down her stomach. She finally saw when it bellowed a deafening roar into her face. She looked up at it, looked at Lady, completely stricken with terror and grief.

There was no time to be angry, no time yet to extract revenge.

Now she had to run.

And so she did. The beast did not follow for the first few seconds, but it only took one extension of the arm for it to have her entire being in its grasp—she hadn't even made it to the door. She screamed, her piercing wail falling on deaf ears as it brought her to its maw, its black lips pulled up into a twisted smile. Its breath washed over her entirely, the smell of it was rank and nearly made her vomit. She sobbed fruitlessly into the closest thing she could find—the beasts furry finger.

The portal was open again. But who had done it?

"…how could you do this?" she sobbed, looking at the beast and it's dozens of blood red eyes. It was a common look for those who had nothing better to do but pure evil. "Even this has to be below beings such as you." She spoke of Lady Rainicorn and her unborn offspring. The beast gave her a toothy grin and she did not doubt that those teeth would be used to grind her up shortly. It brought her closer to its mouth, and said in the most demonic voice never imagined by intelligent life,

"**_WAKE UP!_**"

"Bonnibel! Bonnibel, you have to wake up!"

Marceline held Bonnibel's shoulder's in her palms and shook the girl gently. She hovered over her girlfriend's sleeping form, nearly straddling her. Quick, shallow breaths shook the princess' chest and she was sweating profusely. Marceline gave Bonnibel's cheek a few rapid slaps, and her eyes snapped open. Just as soon, she sat up in bed and shouted, "Lady! Where's Lady Rainicorn? _LADY?!_" It was the most throat-shredding, heartbreaking cry Marceline had ever heard. She pulled the flailing woman into her arms, holding her tight even as she struggled against her.

"Bonni! Bonni, stop it it's okay, it was only a nightmare!"

"No it wasn't!" Bonnibel screamed back and tried to push Marceline away. "No, I saw the demon holding her! It cut the babies out of her, she was dead!"

"Bonnibel, stop! Lady Rainicorn is NOT dead!"

She stopped and looked at Marceline. Her eyes were huge and unfocused, looking all over Marceline's face. "Where is she, then…?"

"I don't know, but I can tell you right now that she isn't dead." She hugged Bonnibel tighter, tucking the smaller girl's head beneath her chin, "It was _just_ a nightmare. Calm down." Bonnibel grabbed onto her this time and buried her face into Marceline's shoulder, and she began to cry. Marceline cried with her because she was unsure if what she just said was a complete lie. She really hoped not. She pressed her lips against the top of Bonnibel's head and stroked her back in a comforting motion.

A sharp rap on the door brought their attention away from each other. It must have startled Bonnibel because she tensed in Marceline's arms and gripped her shirt tighter.

"It must be Finn and his gal pal," said Marceline. She stroked Bonnibel's arm and nuzzled her cheek, "I have to go greet them. I'll be back." Bonnibel nodded numbly. Marceline planted a small kiss and her lips before floating downstairs. Before opening the door, she checked the window to be sure it was really them—if whoever made the Candy Kingdom explode found out the Princess was still alive, there'd be hell. Fortunately, it was Finn and Flame Princess, but someone was with them. They were tall and in clothes she felt were familiar to her somehow. She 'hmmph-ed' and moved to open the door.

She instantly became furious.

"_Natalie_?!"

The woman with the dopey grin lifted a hand to wave. "Hey, hey, Marci. Long time no see—?"

_CRACK!_

Natalie's head flung back, red spraying from her broken nose as she tumbled backwards and fell down the front steps. She landed with a dull 'thump' against the cave floor.

"You fucking _bitch_!" Marceline seethed, "How _dare_ you come back at a time like this!"

"That's a fine hello." Natalie chuckled. She lifted herself up onto her elbows, "Sucks for you though. I'm higher than a kite right now. Your blows may do some serious physical damage to me, but I won't a feel a goddamn thing!" Blood drenched the entire lower half of her face, flowing uncontrollably from her now very crooked nose. The tinted glasses she wore were broken in half by the punch and hung loosely from her left ear.

Marceline growled fiercely and went to strike her again. She lifted her leg and was ready to stomp down on Natalie's sternum, but Finn now stood in the way. "Move, Finn," she growled, "I won't feel better until I hear her ribs crunch beneath my foot."

"But you'll kill her!" Finn cried, arm flailing above his head.

"What? She won't die if I break her ribs! She'll just cry a little. I swear. Now move."

"We need her, Marceline! Don't do it!"

Marceline lowered her foot, confused. "Need her for what?"

Natalie groaned as she lifted herself from the ground, "This kid thinks I know something about some monster that's been terrorizing forest people. But I don't, and I told him that."

"You could have suppressed memories. I know Marceline did when I smelled that funky stuff on her." said Finn, "For the longest time she couldn't remember there was a turkey in the oven that was actually me pretending to be a turkey."

"I said I was sorry!"

"I doubt I have suppressed memories, dude." Natalie folded her arms across her chest, a bored in those bloodshot eyes.. My brain is shot right now and I usually don't remember much after I've smoked."

Marceline snorted, "Yeah, and you smoke all the time. I'm surprised you still remember how to breathe."

Natalie waved her off like Flame Princess waved away the smoke practically radiating from the woman. "Look, I don't have time for your bullshit right now. The Candy Kingdom is gone. Is Princess Bubblegum still alive?"

"Why?"

"I figured you of all people would know."

Finn's mouth dropped open, "You know the Princess too? Dude, how come I never knew about you?"

Marceline butted in before Natalie's fried brain could even begin to think of a semi-appropriate answer, "Because she's a total bitch, that's why! Ever since I met her, she's caused me nothing but trouble!"

"Yeah," Natalie laughed, "Because _I'm_ the one who caused that big fight between you and the Princess."

"You _did_ you forgetful—UGH! Why did you bring her here!?" She turned to Finn and Flame Princess, who both flinched beneath her glare.

Finn spoke up first, as he usually did, "Well, she said she knew you. I mean, I was gonna bring her over here anyway because I thought she'd help, but then she said that she knows you and I just had to know how she knows you, you know?" Finn wrung his hands nervously, which is something that he usually didn't do.

"She was also pretty hurt when we found her," said Flame Princess, glancing sidelong at the woman as she tried to readjust her broken nose, "But I don't think she remembered her wounds were there at the time."

"Just let her in for the night, okay? I _swear_ Marcie; I'll make her leave tomorrow morning."

Marceline thought for a moment. After all this time and despite the things she had done, Bonnibel would probably want to see this madwoman again. After all, it was Bonnibel who sent her to Aaa in the first place—Marceline never learned why—and Natalie probably knew if the Candy Kingdom in Aaa fared better than the one here. Sighing, she relented, "Fine. She can come in. But I will not hesitate to kick her ass if she pisses me off."

"Whatever," Natalie snickered. She slipped past Marceline. Marceline growled deep in her throat when their shoulders brushed during the passing.

"Thanks, Marceline," said Finn.

"Yeah, yeah. Just get in here." She ushered Finn inside, but stopped Flame Princess with her arm before she could get inside. She said in a hushed whisper, "Don't look so scared. She practically harmless."

"Why do you hate her so much then?"

"Eh…we have _major_ personality conflicts, let's just leave it at that. She also almost made me and Bonnie break up. I'm _still_ pissed about that. Ugh."

When Marceline returned to her room with Finn and Flame Princess following behind, she found that Natalie was already sitting by Bonnibel's bedside. Bonnibel seemed like she was happy to see her, but it was masked by the still-lingering emotions from her nightmare. Marceline frowned when she noticed how tired Bonnibel looked. Although she smiled at the doped-out woman kneeling in front of her, the vampire could tell that the memory of the nightmare was still fresh in her mind.

Feeling overly concerned, Marceline swooped over and sat next to Bonnibel on the bed. All resentment and anger felt for Natalie was suddenly forgotten when Bonnibel looked up at her and smiled, "Hey, you're back,"

"Just like I said I would be," She kissed the side of Bonnibel's head and hugged her close. "You feeling any better?"

Bonnibel nodded into Marceline's shoulder, "A bit, yes, now that everyone's back."

Marceline glanced over at Natalie. She was staring intently at them with strangely focused eyes. Finn and Flame Princess stood beside her, but not even Flame Princess' brightly glowing form was enough to distract her away from those creepy eyes.

"Natalie's back, finally." Bonnibel said, quietly. "It's been _ages_ since I sent you to the Land of Aaa. What took you so long?"

"Things you wouldn't understand, mostly 'cause you don't have an ounce of human blood in you." Natalie scratched the drying blood on her chin with an overgrown fingernail, "I'm back now, though, as you said. I _did_ have important information for you from Prince Gumball, but I was caught up in the 'Great Event' and now my mind's all foggy. I'm sure it wasn't_ too_ important, if I forgot so easily. Eh, I'll tell you when I remember."

"Maybe if you'd quit your shit you'd remember," Marceline grumbled silently. If anyone heard it, no one showed that they did. No one but Natalie, who shot her a glare. And maybe Bonnibel, because she felt her girlfriend slap her lightly on the shoulder after she had said it.

"Listen, Natalie. I'm glad you're back. There's something I need for you do to for me." Bonnibel leaned into Marceline's embrace as she spoke, getting comfortable. Natalie watched, interested.

Bonnibel took Marceline's hand and squeezed it. By now, Marceline knew what Bonnibel was going to ask of the blitzed woman. The nightmare had obviously triggered a lot of stress and Bonnibel wanted to know for sure what happened. She huffed and squeezed her hand back. As long as Natalie left, she really didn't care.

"What is it, Princess?"

"The explosion…I think…I think it caused something…or…or something caused the explosion and…"

Natalie's dopey grin faded away as Bonnibel tried to get her words out. She appeared to be sobering up, because now she looked worried as hell. "Uh…Princess?"

Suddenly, Bonnibel shook her head. "You know what? Never mind. It's most likely just the dream playing tricks with my mind…" She looked up at Natalie, noticing how pale she looked, "There is something I want you to do for me though. I want you to go out to the Candy Kingdom Ruins and look for Lady Rainicorn for me."

"But…"

"Take Finn and Flame Princess if you must, but please, if you can, find Lady Rainicorn and her children and bring her back safely."

"Children…" Natalie parroted, still paler than a ghost.

"I need you to leave immediately. There is no time to waste. All three of you, leave, now!"

Startled at how forceful the Princess was being, Finn, Flame Princess, and Natalie all left in a mad rush. Plenty of crashes and bangs were heard as they tried to get out the door in one peace. Once she was sure they were gone, Bonnibel sighed sadly and buried her face in her palm. Marceline was about to ask her what was wrong, but she spoke up first, "Marceline, _why_ did you break Natalie's nose?"

Marceline growled, "She pissed me off. Do I need any other reason?"

"Marci, you can't be having these fights with her all the time. Especially not now. _Not_ right now…" Her voice quavered with fear.

Marceline looked down at her, eyebrows raised, "Why not? Babe, what's wrong?"

"The dream…it…it's…" Bonnibel took a steadying breath, "I think someone's reopened the portal to the Netherrealm."

Marceline's jaw dropped, "WHAT? But…but we closed—my dad closed—"

"And someone _reopened_ it Marceline."

"How can you be sure?"

"I'm not but…I've never had a dream about it before. Not even after last time. It's _never_ happened Marceline."

"Should we tell Natalie?"

Bonnibel squeezed Marceline's hand again, "I don't think so." She paused, leaning into Marceline again. She bit her bottom lip. She really, _really_ hoped it was just a dream. But Natalie was _so pale_ when she tried to tell her, as if…

"I think she already knows."

**A/N: It became a bit difficult to write towards the end, but hopefully I've captured the feeling well. OH~Hey, I finally did one of those cover image thingies that seem to be so great. Hahaha. It seemed to fit the beginning of this story well, and I really liked it despite the fact that they're happy in the image ^_^ LizLeeLi deviantart drew this image and has allowed me to use it. Please go look at her art for it it is great and I love it very much.**


	4. The Nuclear Diaries, Part 1

Chapter 4

_Dear diary~_

_Today, stranger fixed Hambo for me...  
_

"Mommy?"

Her call went unanswered for the sixteenth time that night. Holding Hambo in one hand and his dismembered arm in the other, eight-year-old Marceline took a few curious steps away from her old house and towards the woods. It had been four days since her mother had left her to go look for food; ever since the bombs fell, the markets didn't sell anything anymore. She had told Marceline to stay here and wait for her father.

So far, neither of them had come.

Hambo's arm had fallen off about twenty minutes ago, give or take because she had no concept of time without a clock. Marceline did not know how to fix him herself, it was usually her mom who did that but she wasn't here. Five minutes ago, or when the sun had started to set, she saw something slither in the trees behind her house. Her mother had always told her never to go there, especially after the bombs, but her mother also always said that Marceline took a lot after her father—he never really listened, and neither did she.

There was a thick, snaky looking thing lying in a pile of leaves. It moved, slithered, retracted into itself, flopping up and down subtly every so often. It reminded her of what a giant slug would look like if it had fur and scales. She wasn't frightened by it so much as she was curious. Holding the amputated Hambo to her chest, Marceline took a few more steps closer. When her foot stepped on a black piece of twig, snapping in half under her foot, pieces of charcoaled wood scattering and smudging against her toes, the slithery thing jumped and pulled itself behind the tree. Leaves cracked beneath an unknown creature's weight. Marceline backed up a bit.

"H-hello? Is anyone there?" Her voice was still wavering from when she was crying over Hambo's arm. She hated it when she cried, but she couldn't help it. Besides her parents, he was her only friend. "Hello?"

"Stay back." The voice that answered was deep and scary, but nowhere near threatening. Looking back on this situation, Marceline still wouldn't know how she could tell, but she didn't think whatever was talking to her wanted to hurt her. Maybe they even wanted to help."Don't come near me, okay? It's not safe for you."

"How come?"

"Just don't. Hey!"

Marceline was at the tree the person was hiding behind. She still could not see the person, because they were on the opposite side of course, but she could now see the very tip of the slithery thing. She realized that it was a tail and she bent down to touch it. It flickered, which prompted the person's words, "Don't touch that!"

"What i-is it?"She hiccupped. She hated crying, she really did.

Silence came long before the answer did, "It's my tail."

"Your tail? That's so cool!" Marceline's mind was effectively blown, and she reached over again and grabbed at the tail. She missed; the tail moved far away from her grasp.

"Don't. Touch. That."

Silence again. Marceline's attention drifted slowly from the tail back to Hambo, and she tried to fix him by stabbing the arm back into its socket. With each failure, she started to become upset again. A tiny whine of frustration barely pushed out of her throat, and suddenly the voice asked, "Where's your father?"

Marceline jumped. She had forgotten the person was there. She thought the question asked was a bit odd, though. Usually, when she was lost in the mall or the local supermarket, someone would ask where her _mom_ was, not her dad.

"I don't know. I haven't seen him in a real long time."

"Same with your mom?"

"Yeah…" Marceline bowed her head, staring sadly at her broken doll. "Do you know where she is?"

Once more, silence, before a quiet, yet reluctant, "No."

"Oh…"

"Your doll is torn."

Marceline sniffled, tried to hold back her tears but was so far unsuccessful. "I kn-know."

"Did your mom fix him, usually? He looks like he's seen some action in his day."

It was true. Hambo had literally been through hell and back. She played with him down in the old, dried out well while her parents worked, and she would often have play swordfights with him. She nodded, but then, upon realizing that the person could not see her from where they were, she said, "Y-yeah. Sh-she does."

Sighing, she saw the tail twitch from the corner of her eye, and the crunching of leaves as a foot wrapped in cloth moved into her field of vision. Following after the foot was an entire person wrapped in cloth. The only real visible part of them was the tail. Their eyes, all four of them, were blood red. The person extended out a hand. It was a pale pink, like her mothers, but riddled with cuts and bruises. "Give it here. I'll fix him for you."

A mixed feeling of fondness and contempt washed over her. She felt as if she shouldn't trust this person, whoever they were, and yet she trusted them completely. She complied, nevertheless, and handed Hambo and his arm over to them. The person reached into their pocket with their free hand and produced a needle and a spool of thread. They sat down, legs crossed with their tail across their lap, and started to sew the arm back on. Marceline watched. Their movements were sloppier than her mother's when she would fix Hambo, but they appeared to be getting the job done. In less than thirty seconds, the person handed Hambo back over.

"There."

He looked good as new. Marceline smiled and hugged him close. In her mental home, he was hugging her back.

"Thank you, mister!" she giggled happily. The person snickered at her, their tail flicking up a tiny bit. Marceline looked at them, confused.

"I'm a lady."

"Really? You don't look like a lady."

"I know."

"You don't sound like a lady."

"I know."

"How are you a lady if you don't look or sound like one?"

"I'd get arrested if I tried to prove it to you."

Marceline looked bewilderedly at the strange woman. Beneath the hood, she could see her smiling, just as her mother would always smile at her. Moving gently, the woman held out her other hand and offered the thread and needle. "It's easy when you get the hang of it. Think you can do it on your own next time?"

Marceline tried to remember all the times she had watched her mother sew something back onto Hambo, and tried to playback this woman's swift moments when she did it. "Yeah, I think so."

"Good. Because I have to leave now."

"Wait!" Marceline grabbed the woman's cloth's as she stood, trying to pull her back. "Could you please stay? Until my daddy comes?"

"I don't think he'd like that. I don't think _you'd_ like that."

"Why not?"

"I just don't think it'd be a safe idea. Besides, you got your toy to keep you company. I really got to get going now. But I'll be watching over you, 'kay?" The woman yanked her cloth away from Marceline's grip and said, sadly, "See you around, Marci." Being a still naïve child, Marceline didn't catch that the lady had used her name when she hadn't even told it to her. The lady suddenly broke into a run and dashed away. She was out of sight within seconds.

Marceline waved goodbye, even when the woman had gone. She looked at the spool of thread and needle. There was plenty of thread; it should last a long time if she played more carefully with Hambo. Marceline didn't know why she thought that the lady was bad. Why would she help if she were bad? Smiling, she stuffed the items into her front pocket and went back to her house. She sat down and began to play with Hambo again, happy that he was fixed once more.

As time went by, however, she became aware of a smell coming from her beloved doll. It wasn't an unpleasant smell. It was familiar to her, actually, to a plant that used to grow in her parents' back yard. She lifted Hambo up to her nose and inhaled deeply, trying to identify the scent. A remembering smile stretched across her face and she giggled.

Hambo now smelled of mint leaves.

**A/N: Diary entries will be considerably shorter than regular chapters. Let me know what you think! Hopefully it's as good as the other chapters.**


	5. The Black Fog

Chapter 5:

Even after two weeks, the embers of the Candy Kingdom Ruins still burned dully in the cover of the night. The smell of burnt sugar and rubble was thick in the air, the melting remains of the Candy folk scattered among the blackened fields. Giant chunks of broken glass, the Guardians' shattered heads, poked out of the ground in several areas, the glow of a blue moon making the glass shine brilliantly as a thick smoke rolled from nowhere in to snuff it out. The candy appendages twitched, fingers curled beneath the influence of the miasma.

The debris shifted as the smog manipulated the decaying corpses, waking them.

It was less than an hour ago that they were looking for a big bad monster. Now they looked for someone who was most likely dead in what was now one of the worst places imaginable.

"This place is worse off than I remembered…"

Finn coughed harshly, fanning away the foul-smelling smoke with his hand. Flame Princess stood beside him, eyes slowly scanning the area. The look she had when she met Natalie was still plastered onto her face. The woman in question was far off on the other side of the fallen castle, rummaging through the dirt and rubble in hopes of finding clues.

He took off his hat so he could scratch his scalp. His pure blonde locks were immediately soiled by the large amount of smog hanging in the air, the soot clinging to his hair. He twisted around to face Flame Princess, who was looking in Natalie's direction, though she could not see her through the smog.

"Maybe we should check out the Cotton Candy Forest next. Maybe she's there."

Flame Princess looked down at him, face contorted with worry. "Do you really think she's still alive? Lady Rainicorn, I mean,"

"Yeah, sure. She's been through tons worse before, and she can phase through things and stuff." He smiled reassuringly, "Of course she's all right."

"If she's all right, then how come she hasn't come to visit the Princess yet? Weren't they, like, best friends or something?"

Finn opened his mouth to answer, but only a small, strangled sound came out. He hadn't thought of that. He decidedly left her question unanswered, crouched down onto his haunches and started to pick away the pieces of rubble. Flame Princess went back to staring in Natalie's general direction.

Minutes passed. Silence grew louder and the darkness became more intense as the smog began to rise. Pretty soon it was up to Flame Princess' knees. Finn stood up, coughing. His face was completely black, as was his hat and the hair that poked out from several areas. He rubbed his face in an attempt to clear it of the soot but somehow wound up making it worse instead.

"You didn't find anything?"

Finn shook his head, "No. This stuff's too thick." He coughed into a closed fist, spraying blood against his knuckles that Flame Princess did not see because she wasn't looking at him anymore. He wiped his hand off on the inside of his shirt, grumbling a short "…this sucks," before looking back at his girlfriend. She was looking back into the distance, at the black fog as it drifted closer to them.

"Come on," he said, "Let's go get Natalie and look in the Cotton Candy Forest. Maybe we can find something there."

Flame Princess felt her chest tighten. _No_, she thought,_I don't want Natalie to come with us. I'd rather leave her here to suffocate in the smog!_ It made her feel guilty to think that, but there was no truer thought in her head.

"Let's just go on without her. She'll catch up."

For a moment, Finn thought about it, but then tossed the idea aside. "No. Maybe if we had Jake here to keep her company, but he isn't here. I don't want to leave her here all by herself."

Flame Princess swore beneath her breath. She followed Finn to where _she_ was, nevertheless, grumbling the entire way. She did not deny it to herself that she wanted to murder that woman with fire. With hot fire. Slowly. But, of course, she was the only other human besides Finn and, although she wasn't sure he had noticed yet, Flame Princess didn't want to take that away from him.

The smog was so much worse on the other side. By the time they reached the other side of the ruins, the smog had gotten so thick that they—or Finn, rather, Flame Princess could see just fine—could not see anything three inches in front of them. It was also very suffocating, as proven when Finn began to have nasty coughing fits within the first six seconds of being there. The black cloud hung above them, engulfing them entirely like a crashing tidal wave.

Where did it even come from, though?

There was no clear sign of Natalie. Silently, Flame Princess hoped that Natalie had choked and died on this toxic air, but a sickening feeling in her flame-guts told her that it wasn't the case.

Suddenly, Flame Princess let out a shriek as she felt something cold and slimy brush against her leg. Steam rose up in the air as the slime evaporated against her skin, floating up and mixing with the smog. Something beneath her also screamed. She spun around to blast the threat with a couple hundred degrees of pure flame, but there was nothing there.

"Flame Princess?" Finn wheezed, blinking and looking at the only part of Flame Princess he could: her glow. "Flame Princess—a-are you oka—WOAH!" Something shot out of the dark and snaked around his neck, tugging him back. It squeezed harshly, cutting off what little air he still had. He wheezed, clawing at the threatening appendage and realizing that it was a skeletal arm. He gasped, or tried to, curling all of his fingers around the arm and _ripping_ it from his neck. It was easy for him, but the moment he got it off he started hacking up blood again.

He coughed hoarsely, "Ugh…candy zombies…again…"

Flame Princess tried to reach out to him but could not. Her arm extended but never reached its full length, someone had grabbed her from behind, holding her wrist with one and using their free arm to snake around her waist and keep her pressed against them. She squirmed, seething through clenched teeth, and twisted around in the offender's grip. She was surprised to see that it was Natalie.

"What are you doing? Let me go!"

The woman did not answer. She did not let go. She stared at her with eyes that focused. She could see Flame Princess as well as Flame Princess could see her, even in this haze. The blood on her chin looked fresher than it did about an hour ago. Flame Princess realized that this was new blood, flowing from Natalie's mouth rather than her crooked nose. There were also three large gashes going diagonally across the woman's face, also adding to the red on her face.

As if Flame Princess actually cared for the woman's wellbeing, though.

Flame Princess squirmed again, her body heating up more as she became more infuriated. "Let—_go_! Ugh! Finn's going to die!"

Natalie did not hear, or more likely ignored her please. She appeared to be in some kind of trance. Breathing deep through her nose, Natalie whispered to her, "The Black Fog has risen the dead. It won't be long before shit really starts hitting the fan." There was a worried frown on her face, and a strange look in her eye.

Flame Princess ignored that.

"What are you talking about? The zombies are attacking Finn, you wingbat! HELP HIM!"

Natalie was snapped from the trance. She tore her gaze away from the fuming princess to look at Finn. He had fallen to the ground and was now being swarmed by candy zombies. She murmured, "Shit." and lunged forward, releasing her grip on Flame Princess to grab Finn's shirt and pull him away from the corpses. They fell to pieces at the forceful tug and she quickly checked for bites before hauling him onto her shoulder. She was about to start running when another zombie leapt out from nowhere, catching her by her leg and plunging its pitch-black teeth into her bellbottom jeans. The fabric broke, so did her skin, and even more blood seeped out of her body. Natalie didn't scream, and instead kicked her leg free of the undead creature. Its head flew off with a force, disappearing into the smog. If you listened, you could hear it 'splunching' along the ground.

She looked at Flame Princess again. "_Run_!" And she bolted: sprinted as if her new leg injury didn't exist. She was out of sight in seconds. Flame Princess, stunned by her swiftness, stood for a few moments in silence before the sound of moaning and shuffling closing in around her forced her to move.

Something snagged onto her again, though, and prevented her quick getaway. It breathed onto her shoulder and it felt hot against her skin. Keeping in mind that she was a fire elemental, saying that something felt hot to her should be terrifying for anyone involved. Not her, though; not yet, at least. She looked behind her, expecting another candy zombie and preparing a fireball for its face.

It wasn't a zombie. The melting corpses were hanging off it though, dethatched arms clinging to its blue-stained-black fur and several amputated heads biting down on its bark-like flesh. It stood higher than her by six feet. She didn't know what it was, and to her it was nearly indescribable—the only words she had for it was "oh fuck"—and its four bloodshot eyes bore into her two and shook her to her core.

She couldn't help it. She screamed ear-piercingly loud, and the monster pulled her down and sunk its teeth into her leg. She cried out louder, blasting fire as fast as she could into the monster's face. It had no effect aside from pissing it off, and it rose up onto its hind legs. The appendages clinging onto it fell off in pieces as it began to violently shake her around, snarling and drooling and foaming. All Flame Princess could do at this point was and try to free herself.

Finally the monster unclenched its jaw, sending her flying a couple hundred feet, skipping and rolling along the ground. The wind was knocked right out of her as she plummeted out of the cloud of black haze and into several trees. She stopped eventually, landing on her back and skidding to a halt.

She gasped and sat up. Her leg was throbbing, sending shockwaves of a cold pain all the way up to her skull. She moaned. "Oh, gob. What was that?" she sniffled, a whispery cry of a voice escaping her mouth instead of her normal one. She held onto her wounded leg, feeling the appendage going numb, eyes squeezed shut because she did not want to see the damage that monster had done to her.

"Holy shit!" Natalie appeared in front of her _again_ and Flame Princess' eyes shot open. The woman fell to her knees, worry and fright battling to be the dominate expression on her face. Where she came from, Flame Princess was almost afraid to guess, but she was actually a little glad to see her. She was carrying an unconscious Finn on her back, wheezing and hacking from time spent in the black cloud. Natalie asked, "What the hell happened?"

"S-something attacked me!"

"Zombies? Is it the candy zombies?"

"N-no. It's-it's a monster! It's immune to my fire!"

"Black Fog…" she mumbled, pale as a ghost, "and a fireproof monster? Oh shit."

A ferocious roar grabbed both girls' attention.

Natalie spun around, and dropped Finn on his back in stunned fear when she saw the monster rip through the black cloud, in a dead run, charging at the three of them with bloody slobber flinging off its maw. It jumped from several feet way, snarling, and clipped Natalie's side as it passed, one of its jagged claws digging deep into the space between her ribs and hipbone. It ripped easily through her flesh, the claw nearly ripping her in two. She shrieked and keeled over, clutching at the wound.

Flame Princess in turn let out a yelp. The sound of both girls' torment jolted Finn halfway out of his stupor. Groggy and with lungs feeling like nothing but burnt tissue, he sat up. His bleary eyes focused just enough on the monster.

"It's the monster from the forest!"

He didn't know why or how, but he instantly recognized it as the monster that was terrorizing the forest people. What was it doing in the Candy Kingdom Ruins? Wide awake and alert now, he reached for his sword.

It had been looming over Natalie's quivering, wounded body, ready to strike the killing blow, but was distracted by Finn's shout. He waved his father's sword at the monster, "Why don't you pick on someone who can actually fight you, you filthy monster!" His voice was low and gravely, and as he spoke he couldn't stop himself from wheezing. Whatever that smog stuff was, it had done a number on his lungs.

"Finn, be careful!" Flame Princess called. The monster-of-the-forest reached out and tried to grab Finn, but he stumbled back and flailed his sword, mind still disoriented from his previous unconscious state. The tip of the sword grazed the tip of the monster's fingers, making a surprisingly deep gash dragging a long each of them. The monster reared back, holding the claw to its chest as it started smoking. It growled at the pain, growled at Finn and he laughed at it.

Actually, he was wheezing painfully, but there was laughter mixed in with it. The monster growled and smacked him with its wounded hand, sending him flying into a tree. Then, body of calloused skin and fur shifting, it sprouted an extra arm out of its chest and began to grow in size. The extra hand dropped down and snatched up Flame Princess, who retaliated by swinging fireballs at it uselessly. With its other hand, it scraped Natalie off the ground and lifted her up to its mouth and with its third, grabbed Finn.

He recovered from the hit as fast as he could. He lifted the sword and plunged it as deep as he could, not stopping until the hand guard hit the beat's skin. Red smoke erupted from the wound like blood and it released its grip on him. He rolled as he landed, but when he stood his legs buckled beneath him and he fell onto his rump.

The monster roared painfully.

"**_WHAT IS THIS?_**" it bellowed. Finn's mouth dropped open, "**_THAT HURT! THIS DAMNED SWORD HURTS!_**"

"You know how to talk?"

It dropped Flame Princess so it could claw at the sword, and she fell into a pile of leaves that combusted instantaneously when she made contact. Finn glanced at the fire, the back at the monster. It still held Natalie.

"**_OF COURSE I CAN TALK! I AM NOT STUPID, YOU STUPID HUMAN BOY!_**" Its voice was about as indescribable as its looks. As it spoke to him, its tongue kept sliding out from behind its black lips that curled into a mean snarl. It pulled the sword out, holding the blade between its fingers like a toothpick, "**_YOU WILL PAY FOR THE PAIN YOU HAVE INFLICTED UNTO ME!_**"

"Finn! _Run_!" Flame Princess pleaded, and Finn, of course, disobeyed any order to flee. Millions of ideas on how to fight this terror-of-the-forest rushed through his mind at once, all of them very terrible without the use of his sword. It flicked said sword at him and he jumped out of its path, tucking and rolling when his leap sent him over a downhill slope. The beast grew larger once more and leaned over the hillside, reaching to grab him again. Its claw swiped air, missing him only by inches. The wind, however, was enough to push him over.

"**_I WILL SEE YOU IN THE NETHERREALMS, FINN THE HUMAN!_**" It opened its mouth and the back of its throat glowed bright. Finn covered his eyes, blinded by the sudden light and stunned by it.

"Get out of there, Finn!" Flame Princess cried. She jumped up to help, but an icy pain shot up her leg and it immediately buckled under the weight of herself. She fired up again and started pelting the monster once more with balls of fire. It, again, hadn't the desired effect. She knew that it wouldn't after all the previous attempts, but she still felt she had to try.

Disgruntled with her repeated failures, Flame Princess searched for an alternative.

And she came up with absolutely nothing.

Something between lightning and concentrated flame shot like a beam from the demon's mouth and sprayed the area around Finn. The beam never touched him: it instead went in circles around him. When the lines connected, the ground began to crumble beneath his feet into an endless abyss of glowing red. Shrieking, Finn grabbed hold of the edge of the circle, dangling now and the edge of the portal was burning his skin.

The monster cackled at his efforts to escape. In its hand, Natalie groaned as she regained consciousness possibly for the very last time. Groggy, she lifted her head difficultly and looked up at her captor. In her weakened said, she could only hold her head up halfway so right now she was looking at its horrifyingly scabbed chest where several tendril tips poked out and wriggled as if they were reaching for freedom. Very weak, she called as loud as she could.

"Flame Pr-_eeeh_…the chest…hit—hit the chest…"

Flame Princess heard, but barely. It registered quickly in her mind that it was something she desperately didn't want to do. She was already near death once when it held her between its teeth, and then again in its fingers and all her fireblasting did was piss it off.

Natalie quivered as she breathed, "…save th-the boy…and a-aim f-for the chest…"

The monster hissed, squeezing Natalie and forcing out a blood chilling scream, "**_QUIET YOU!_**" There were several cracks of bone and Natalie fell limp once more. The broken purple glasses that hung from her left ear finally swung loose and plummeted, striking Flame Princess' Headgem. It was enough to knock some sense into her. She shook her head, glancing down at the portal where her boyfriend dangled and tried to pull himself up.

She looked at the monster's chest and saw the tendrils poking out, wanting escape. The crusty, crackled skin around it appeared weak and it engulfed its entire chest and she could not believe she hadn't seen that before. She took a breath to steady herself, and then propelled herself forward with a large jet of fire. The fire did nothing to it, which was already obvious to her, but the impact of her body knocked something loose. The hit knocked her and the monster off balance, and she felt herself falling, and then she wasn't.

The tendrils were free of their bindings, and they had wrapped around her.

The monster shrieked and scratched furiously at its chest. The tendrils engulfed Flame Princess entirely, smothering her fire. She fought against it, squirmed and tried to flare up again, but when the tendrils covered her eyes she knew it was hopeless. She cursed Natalie in the form of loud and angry grunts for tricking her or actually being stupid enough to think this was a good solution.

Her fire was smothered by the tendrils, and she heard Finn crying out to her in hysteria.

The last thing she registered was the feeling of regret for not heeding Natalie's previous order to save him first.

And then her mind slipped, and she fell out of the conscious world.

**A/N: If there are parts of this chapter you don't understand, don't complain. It was purposefully done that way. DON'T YELL AT ME.**

**So I am trying to make a decision, but I can't seen to find an answer for myself. Please check out my poll on my profile and help me decide whether these chapters should be shorter or not!  
**

**As always, I accept constructive criticism and please review, would you kindly ^_^  
**


	6. The Half Breeds

Chapter 6: The Half-breeds

The first sign that she was still alive was a wasp of cool air hitting her face. Her eyes fluttered open and she saw moon-bathed trees swaying in the wind, slanting shadows mimicking every move; her sight was the second. The heartbeat and steady breathing she felt against her back was the third sign. Her head lolled back and she groaned. Her entire body felt like ice; her joints were stiff and it felt as if someone had stuck her in a freezer for two days.

The fourth sign was the arms encircled protectively around her. It took a bit longer to notice, but it wasn't like she needed much more proof anyway. Reaching one hand up, she touched her protector's fingers. A sharp inhale from behind—not exactly a gasp, but something close to it; it seemed desperate. An exhale and smoke blew outward over Flame Princess' shoulder. It smelled funny, and left her mind drawing more of a blank than it already was. The arms moved away, and deformed claws replaced them.

The claws curled around her shoulders. They were sharp and the tips dug slightly into her skin. Flame Princess tensed. Those long, gnarled fingers resembled the ones on the monster-of-the-forest. Oh no…it had her.

The claws squeezed her gently, and the breath of a garlic-y-burnt-bacon-munching-dragon found her nose. Flame Princess held her breath and tried to appear still unconscious, and somehow she found success.

A loud sigh mixed with a pained groan, and the breathing thing behind her shifted and stood, laying her down gently on the ground. Footsteps. Bloodied feet and torn bellbottom jeans filled her vision next, breaking her view of the trees. It was Natalie: her features were blotted out because she was standing in front of the bright glow of the moon, and all Flame Princess could see was a blackened figure. The woman's hands looked horribly disfigured; it was probably a trick of the light, or maybe that monstrous beast had done something to her.

Oh yeah. The beast. How did they escape _that_?

Flame Princess sat up, and her vision went black for a few seconds because of her haste. When the black spots faded, she glanced at Natalie: she was looking right at her. A white smoking stick was dangling from her mouth, lit and producing a musky white smoke that reeked like those people King Father had told her to stay away from.

"There you are," Natalie smiled and breathed a relieved sigh, "Your fire almost went out for good. I was worried for a few minutes. But not very."

"You're alive?"

"Well, yeah."

"But…I saw…that thing nearly tore you in half...and it broke all your bones!"

"Nah," Natalie chuckled, waving her hand at the girl as if she had said something silly, "That was only a flesh wound."

Her total disregard for her own injuries puzzled and infuriated the Flame Princess, but suddenly she found herself not caring anymore.

"Where's Finn?" she demanded.

Natalie's face, lit up by her smoking stick but blurred by the smoke, contorted into a look of confusion, but only for a second. Her brain finally registered the question and she aha'd, and turned to point. "He's right over there. It took some doing, but I got him away from the beast."

Flame Princess followed Natalie's pointed finger and found Finn lying on his back, either unconscious or just sleeping. She couldn't tell. Sitting on top of him were seven strange organisms, lying curled up on his chest and stomach as if to keep him warm. Some had long bodies, floppy ears and long faces. Others had horns and stubby limbs and a snout like a dog. Forming a circle around him was a long, rainbow colored unicorn with a tarnished but otherwise beautiful blonde mane. Several stitches covered her body, mostly in areas around her stomach.

"Um…" Flame Princess stared. Natalie noticed.

"That's Lady Rainicorn and her babies. Lady Rainicorn showed up to help me fight the demon and we came here right after."

That is Lady Rainicorn? Flame Princess thought she would look a bit different. But Lady is alive, and that was good. The candy princess wouldn't flip out, then. Lady Rainicorn was fast asleep, curled tight around Finn and her children, mumbling small disturbances in Korean as she reached out for something.

"What was that monster—er, the demon? And that fog?" She rose to her feet a bit unsteadily and wobbled toward Natalie. Her leg still ached badly.

"A Netherrealm demon. The Black Fog is kind of their life essence. There's gonna be a lot more of them too…so, ah, get ready."

"_More_?" Flame Princess was visibly horrified, "How much more?"

Natalie scratched her chin with a gnarled finger in thought. When Flame Princess drew nearer, she noticed that the digit was horribly deformed and it was spiked at the very tip. She winced inwardly. "Hmm…well, just the Seal in the Candy Kingdom was destroyed, so there shouldn't be too much more at this moment. But the amount of Black Fog is increasing rapidly. I'd say about a dozen more to come at the end of the…" Up until this point she was speaking completely nonchalantly about it. Then, very suddenly, her voice wobbled and died. She said uncertainly, after finding her voice again, "…a dozen more by the end of the…week."

It worried Flame Princess, how suddenly the woman's tone had changed, as if her foggy mind had just realized the gravity of their situation. They were in some deep shit right now.

"How much more by the end of the month?"

Natalie swallowed, and said hesitantly, "Hundreds." She looked over at Flame Princess, "Then thousands. After that…well, I try not to think about that."

Flame Princess felt a bit cold, "Those things are almost indestructible…how are we supposed to fight that many if we can't even fight one?"

"I will. And so will Marceline." Natalie folded her arms across her chest, "You and the wiz kid over there will have to leave the area until this situation is taken care of."

"You can't fight those things! You're crazy and you do weird things, and you barely got away from the last one!"

"But I did get away, and I got you guys away too." Natalie stuck out her tongue in a mocking gesture, "So there."

"Natalie, you can't fight those things."

"I can't?" Natalie frowned confusedly, "Why not?"

"I just said! You were almost killed by that last one and—and you…" Flame Princess suddenly remembered Natalie's terrible injuries from before, and looked down at her midsection. Besides a few tears and some bloodstains, she was perfectly fine. Flame Princess became genuinely angry at this fact. She screamed, "_HOW_ did you even _SURVIVE_ that?! I thought you died!"

Natalie scoffed, ignoring the princess' rage, "Well I didn't. It was just a flesh wound. I just told you."

"_LIAR_! _YOU DIED, I SAW YOU!"_

Natalie threw her arms up in defense when Flame Princess nearly exploded in every literal sense of the phrase. "Sheez! Calm down, will you?"

Lady Raincorn was awakened by the outburst and lifted her head in curiosity. She watched as Flame Princess continued her enraged shouting.

"_Look at what it did to your hands_!" she roared, her appearance changing to match her furious mood, "_You can't ignore that_!"

Natalie was startled by the comment and checked her hands. The frightened expression softened and she looked back at Flame Princess, "Nothing's wrong with my hands." She lifted the disfigured appendages as if to prove her statement, "See? Perfectly normal."

Flame Princess shrieked in frustration, "What is the _MATTER_ with you?! You're completely insane! How did you manage to get us away from that demon?"

"Lady Rainicorn helped. She and I go way back, she's one of the folks who actually like me around these parts."

Flame Princess glanced at Rainicorn for confirmation. She said something in an odd language and nodded her head. She also started saying something, and the talking lasted for a long time, pointing several times at Natalie and making fierce expressions and snapping her teeth together as if to mimic some kind of predator. Flame Princess didn't understand any of it, but she felt that whatever she was trying to describe wasn't helping Natalie's case.

At that moment, Finn groaned loudly and sat up, rubbing his head. The half-breed pups rolled off them, all yelping in surprise as they tumbled into the dirt and leaves below their organic bed. Lady Rainicorn gasped a bit. She immediately went for hybrid pups and started nuzzling them to stop their tiny, forlorn squeals for attention. Finn rubbed at his eyes and glanced around, "Aaargh…Flame Princess? Where are you?"

Flame Princess forgot her anger and rushed to his side, "Finn! I'm right here. Are you okay?"

Finn blinked, "I'm fine, but…where are you? I can't see you."

Suspicious, Flame Princess waved her hand in front of his face, sure that he would see it because of how brightly it burned. Finn didn't respond to it. Flame Princess gasped, "Oh no!" she cried, "He's been blinded!"

Lady stopped cooing at the Rainicorn pups and looked at Finn, eyebrows raised high. She said something in her odd language that Flame Princess could not understand. Natalie tilted her head at Finn as he turned his head to Lady Rainicorn's voice, "Lady Rainicorn? Is that you? Are you alive?!"

Natalie bent forward to examine him, "Oh yeah, I forgot Black Fog had a blinding affect on humans who dwell in it for too long as well as slowly killing them."

"It does _what_?!"

"It also raises the dead." Natalie laughed at that for some reason.

"How come you're not dead or blind?" asked Flame Princess with an accusing tone, "You were in there longer than we were."

With Finn yelling names and looking for the people who stood right in front of him, and the persisting smell of sugary decay all around them, it took more than just a few moments for Natalie to realize what was just said. When it finally clicked, she sputtered and laughed so hard she nearly fell over. Lady Rainicorn also laughed, but it was what would be considered a polite laugh. She was too busy comforting the mewling Rainicorn pups to be fully engaged.

Flame Princess growled and flared up, "Why are you two laughing at me!?"

"Oh…oh, jeez…" she cackled and held her sides. She turned and grabbed Flame Princess' face with her two malformed hands. Her fingers were so long the tips touched a few inches above her head, arching around the fiery hair. "Are you stupid or _what_, Princess?"

She blinked at the woman who was nearly dying from laughter, and her jaw dropped when the realization hit her like ice water.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Hunson Abadeer had his face smashed up against the portal screen, growling his discontent at the situation as his daughter float-paced around her kitchen. A pot of tomatoes was boiling on the stove; right next to it was a worn candy patterned teakettle.

Marceline pinched the bridge of her nose, sighing. "Yeah, I know that they're opened, Dad."

"Do you know how long it took me to get every single Netherrealm demon back in their stinking hole and seal them there? CENTUIRES! _Centuries_, Marceline! I couldn't just suck their souls out and be done with it, they don't have any!"

"I know, Dad, I know…"

"And now that HALF-BREED is back and running around? Ugh, I swear, if her mother wouldn't declare war on the Night-O-Sphere, I would END that pathetic mound of flesh and rip that half-a-soul right out of her body!"

"Woah, Dad. Just calm down, all right? She had nothing to do with the Netherrealms reopening. One of the Seals broke in the Great Event. She wasn't even—"

"She's still affiliated with them! That's reason enough for me!" Hunson clawed at the portal screen, frustrated when it wouldn't give into his push. "Just send her here to the Night-o-Sphere; the people here will rip her to shreds! Her people will think she was just being stupid!"

"But she _isn't_ stupid, Dad! That's the thing."

Steam hissed from the teakettle's spout, whistling loudly. Marceline glanced briefly at it. Frustrated, she grabbed it barehanded and moved it off the burner. She looked back at her dad's smooshed up face, "She isn't stupid. If she were stupid, her mother wouldn't have made her the heiress. She wouldn't have even been allowed to live for as long as she has been."

Hunson Abadeer's face contorted into a mean snarl. His fists pounded at the portal, as if forgetting that it wouldn't allow him to break through. With one final bellow, he demanded harshly, "**_YOU WILL NOT AID HER IN ANY WAY, MARCELINE! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!?_**" And then the portal collapsed on itself, shriveling in to nothing with a small 'blip!'

Marceline groaned audibly and turned away, "As if I wanted to help Natalie anyway…" She floated over and took the tomatoes off the burners as well, barehanded this time as well.

"Was that your father, Marceline?"

Bonnibel came in, holding a handful of papers and a pen in her lips. Marceline looked at her, at first angry that she was out of bed, but quickly decided that she couldn't stay mad—especially not at Bonnibel.

"Yeah, it was," Marceline replied, "He was mad as hell about the Netherrealms."

"Sounds like it." Bonnibel set the papers down on the table and pulled out a chair to sit. Marceline poured the tea into a cup and passed it over to the former candy princess. "What did he say?"

Marceline rolled her eyes, "Just the same shit he did three hundred years ago," her voice deepened as she adopted a mocking tone, "'I worked so hard fixing up those Seals. Natalie's a filthy mutt but she's still affiliated with them so don't get involved with her. She is nothing but a filthy half-breed and she does weird things and her mother is trying to wage war with the Night-O-Sphere.' He told me I'm not allowed to help her."

"Are you going to listen?"

"Pft, no. I'm still pissed about the fries; do you really think I'll listen to anything he says?"

"I thought you already forgave him for that." Bonnibel started to write something on the papers, "And haven't you made up with him for everything else?"

Marceline tried to retort but found she had to way to argue with that because what her girlfriend spoke of was true. She decided to change the subject. Leaning in, she watched over Bonnibel's shoulder, "What are you working on?"

The former princess pointed with her pen to a circular diagram with many triangles in, under and surrounding it with familiar markings decorating the area around the shapes. It was the Seal that had once been in the Candy Kingdom; the Seal that had once rested in a locked away part of the hidden basement beneath the castle. "If we're going to reclose the Netherrealms, we have to get to work immediately."

"What's redrawing the Seal gonna do if we've got nowhere to put it? We need a secret place for it or someone's just gonna destroy it again."

"I know, I'm working on that. But in the meantime, I'm working on making the Seal stronger so that even explosions can't break it. It's about time we upgrade all of the other Seals as well. Prince Gumball will feel the same, I hope, and help us."

"If his kingdom didn't get blown to pieces yet." Marceline was met with an unhappy stare, "Sorry. Go ahead."

"Once Finn and the others come back from their search, I will have Natalie travel back with a message for Prince Gumball."

"Is that safe? Sending her away when we actually need her help?"

"Besides you, Natalie is the fastest in all the land," Bonnibel started taking notes on the velocity and speed that the woman in question could reach. "It shouldn't take her long to get there and back if she hurries."

"Do you think she even understands the situation? Like, how terrible it is that this is happening? I mean, I've known her for longer than anyone here in Ooo, so I can safely say that she's a bit bonkers. That stuff she smokes doesn't help her case, either."

"I have no doubt in my mind that Natalie knows how bad this is," Bonnibel harrumphed and poked Marceline in the chest, "And don't go patronizing her about her smoking habits. You know the reason why she does it, or do I have to remind you?"

Marceline had to bite back an instinctive hiss. She did know the reason. It was a damned good reason too, but not one really worth bringing up. Marceline counted herself lucky that Bonnibel didn't mention that the vampire had also experimented with the stuff. It was a terrible rough spot in their relationship, and the former princess wouldn't stoop so low as to bring it up again just to prove a point.

"All right, fine." Marceline huffed, "But don't expect me to go with her."

"I don't. I'm afraid you might banish her to the Night-O-Sphere."

"Boy, my dad'll be happy to see that. He really wants to murder her." Marceline floated over to the teakettle and poured its contents into a cup and handed it to Bonnibel, "Here, drink this."

Bonnibel gratefully accepted the tea. "Natalie will be fine by herself. Besides, I need you here."

"I'm not going to argue with that last part, but it took, what, a year for Natalie to come back after you sent her on a week's mission to Aaa?"

"I'm sure she'll do better this time. She knows how dangerous the Netherrealm demons are." She sipped the tea and winced at the sourness of it. Had Marceline ever made tea before at all in her thousand year life? She placed it on the table and left it there. Bonnibel pointed at a sketch. "Here, look. We could place a Seal here using the blood of a Manticorn. That should keep them back,"

"Not for very long," Marceline scoffed, "And especially not since Manticorn's are nearly extinct and by the time we find one all of Ooo will be a giant fucking crater. Just like Land of the Spider Nymphs."

"I know. It won't be like that."

"Somehow I doubt the integrity of your words."

Bonnibel glared, "Okay. What do you think we should use for the Seal then since you're so smart?"

"I know I am, babe. You don't have to say." Marceline smiled, snatched up a boiled tomato and sucked up the red. She discarded the shriveled grey carcass and reached for another plump tomato. With her other hand, she snatched the pen and scratched out a few symbols on the Seal diagram. Right below the scribbles, she wrote new symbols. "We'll use Natalie's blood."

Bonnibel blinked, "Wha—Natalie's? Why?"

A small grin creased Marceline's face. She pointed to the markings she had drawn, "Natalie is her mother's daughter is why. She's got some crazy powerful blood, even if it's diluted by her dad's human blood. And it'll release Black Fog since it'll stay fresh for all eternity. No organic thing will live long enough to destroy the Seal if we do it this way. All we gotta do is keep it in a deep, dark, airtight place so the Fog won't get out. We could do it for all the Seals."

"Marceline, why would Natalie—"

"Because most of the demons coming out of that portal right now are her half brothers and sisters, and she hates them as much as they hate her. She'll do anything to make sure they stay in that hellhole."

Bonnibel thought about it for a moment. It was actually a very good idea if they could pull it off right. It may take a while to get all the blood to redo the Seals, but by that time the Netherrealms should be closed up again. "We'll be asking her for an awful lot though…and most of it will be at her own expense."

Marceline nodded, "Yeah, but she'll do anything to keep those guys down there. Bonnibel, we don't have time to think about who's going to get the shittiest end of the stick. Yeah, Natalie's gonna be a bit…incapacitated for a while, but everyone's gonna be happy in the long run."

"You're right. I just hope you're not saying this because you hate her."

Marceline laughed and hugged Bonnibel tight, chuckling into the smaller girl's neck.

She pulled back and looked Bonnibel in the eye, and said, "I don't hate her all that much. It's just a personality conflict." Her eye drifted to the forgotten cup of tea in the middle of the table. "Are you going to drink that or what?"

The question chilled Bonnibel to the bone.

A/N: Hello, sorry for the huge delay. I have been grounded, unfortunately, and I am using my friend to post this chapter. I don't know how long it will be till I'm able to do this myself again, but oh boy, when I do it'll be such a relief! Anyway, this grounding is why I haven't been able to review on stories where I should have. BubblineFan, your newest story is amazing, and I read it while I was grounded and got myself MORE grounded. THAT'S HOW MUCH YOUR STORIES ARE WORTH IT. iLynxen: I'm SO SORRY I can't talk to you. If it helps, I have a youtube account on which you may private message me. Same name as on here. I am slowly getting my privileges on the internet back, but my parents don't think I'm ready for yet. I can't really argue with them either. THANK YOU FOR READING, GOOD BYE.

Also, I meant for this to be a shorter chapter and it turned out a whole page longer than the previous ones XD OH, SELF, WHY U SO WEIRD.


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